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Facebook extends lead as news gateway: study

Facebook has become an important news source for close to half of American adults, a study showed Thursday amid increased scrutiny over the social network's gateway role.

PHOTO: AFP

[WASHINGTON] Facebook has become an important news source for close to half of American adults, a study showed Thursday amid increased scrutiny over the social network's gateway role.

The Pew Research Center survey showed 62 per cent of US adults get news on social media, and 18 per cent do so often.

That shows a growing role for Facebook and other social networks as a news source. In 2012, based on a slightly different question, 49 per cent of American adults reported seeing news on social media, Pew said.

According to the survey, 66 per cent of Facebook users get news on the site, as did 59 per cent of Twitter users and seven of 10 users of Reddit.

The survey comes with Facebook defending itself against allegations that it suppressed some conservative news content in its "trending" topics.

Last week, Facebook said was unable to substantiate any specific accusations of bias, but announced it was updating guidelines to be clearer that content decisions may not be based on politics or ideology.

The news team will be subject to more oversight and controls, and Facebook will no longer rely on lists of external websites and news outlets to assess the importance of topics in stories.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg met with a group of conservative political leaders and told them the network was "a platform for all ideas." Still, the row over the Facebook allegations has highlighted concerns that social media is increasingly becoming a gateway to news for many readers.

According to the new Pew study, users of Facebook YouTube and Instagram are more likely to get their news by chance, when they are online doing other things.

However, those who use Reddit, Twitter and LinkedIn often seek out news online as often as they stumble upon it.